Free Fall: An Elvis Cole - Joe Pike Novel, Book 4

Elvis Cole is just a detective who can't say no, especially to a girl in a terrible fix. And Jennifer Sheridan qualifies: Her fiance, Mark Thurman, is a decorated L.A. cop with an elite plainclothes unit, but Jennifer's sure he's in trouble - the kind of serious trouble that only Elvis Cole can help him out of.

The Watchman: An Elvis Cole - Joe Pike Novel, Book 11

Pike commits himself to protecting the girl, but when they immediately come under fire, he realizes someone is selling them out.

As the body count rises, Pike's biggest threat might come from the girl herself, a lost soul in the City of Angels, determined to destroy herself - unless Joe Pike can teach her the value of life...and love.

The Two Minute Rule

When ex-con Max Holman finally gets out of jail, freedom doesn't taste too sweet. The only thing on his mind is reconciliation with his estranged son, who is, ironically, a cop. But then he hears the devastating news: His son and three other Los Angeles police officers were gunned down in cold blood the night before Holman's release.

Demolition Angel

In Demolition Angel, he delves into the life-on-the-edge world of the Los Angeles bomb squad. Three years ago, Carol Starkey was one of L.A.'s best bomb squad technicians. Then, a freak accident while disarming a bomb left her scarred inside and out. Now a Detective-2 with the LAPD’s Criminal Conspiracy Section, she is struggling to rebuild her shattered world. When an explosion claims the life of a technician who was a colleague and friend, Carol is assigned to head up the investigation.

Hostage

Jeff Talley was a good husband, a fine father, and a frontline negotiator with LAPD's SWAT unit. But the high stress, unforgiving job took an irreparable toll on his psyche. After a despondent father murders his wife and son and takes his own life, Talley hits bottom. His marriage ends, he resigns from SWAT, and he struggles to escape from his former life. But Talley's pursuit of peaceful small-town life is about to change.

Suspect

LAPD cop Scott James is not doing so well, not since a shocking nighttime assault by unidentified men killed his partner, Stephanie, nearly killed him, and left him enraged, ashamed, and ready to explode. He is unfit for duty - until he meets his new partner. Maggie is not doing so well, either. The German shepherd survived three tours in Iraq and Afghanistan sniffing explosives before she lost her handler to an IED and sniper attack, and her PTSD is as bad as Scott’s. They are each other’s last chance.

The Black Echo: Harry Bosch Series, Book 1

For LAPD homicide cop Harry Bosch - hero, maverick, nighthawk - the body in the drainpipe at Mulholland Dam is more than another anonymous statistic. This one is personal. The dead man, Billy Meadows, was a fellow Vietnam "tunnel rat" who fought side by side with him in a nightmare underground war that brought them to the depths of hell.

Memory Man

Amos Decker's life changed forever - twice. The first time was on the gridiron. A big, towering athlete, he was the only person from his hometown of Burlington ever to go pro. But his career ended before it had a chance to begin. On his very first play, a violent helmet-to-helmet collision knocked him off the field for good and left him with an improbable side effect - he can never forget anything.

The Late Show

Renée Ballard works the night shift in Hollywood, beginning many investigations but finishing none, as each morning she turns her cases over to day shift detectives. A once up-and-coming detective, she's been given this beat as punishment after filing a sexual harassment complaint against a supervisor. But one night she catches two cases she doesn't want to part with: the brutal beating of a prostitute left for dead in a parking lot and the killing of a young woman in a nightclub shooting. Ballard is determined not to give up at dawn.

Orphan X

Evan Smoak is a man with skills, resources, and a personal mission to help those with nowhere else to turn. He's also a man with a dangerous past. Chosen as a child, he was raised and trained as part of the off-the-books black box Orphan program, designed to create the perfect deniable intelligence assets - i.e. assassins. He was Orphan X. Evan broke with the program, using everything he learned to disappear.

Rules of Prey: A Lucas Davenport Novel

The "maddog" murderer who is terrorizing the Twin Cities is two things: insane and extremely intelligent. He kills for the pleasure of it and thoroughly enjoys placing elaborate obstacles to keep police befuddled. Each clever move he makes is another point of pride. But when the brilliant Lieutenant Lucas Davenport, a dedicated cop and a serial killer's worst nightmare, is brought in to take up the investigation, the maddog suddenly has an adversary worthy of his genius.

Two Kinds of Truth

Harry Bosch is back as a volunteer working cold cases for the San Fernando Police Department and is called out to a local drugstore where a young pharmacist has been murdered. Bosch and the town's three-person detective squad sift through the clues, which lead into the dangerous, big business world of pill mills and prescription drug abuse.

The Way of the Wolf: A Noah Wolf Thriller

What happens to a seven-year-old boy who sees his parents die in a murder suicide? There is trauma, of course, and an impact to his emotional health from which you may never recover. Noah Foster was that boy, and his struggle with post-traumatic stress has left him without emotions, without a conscience and without whatever it is that once made him human.

Open and Shut

Whether dueling with new forensics or the local old boys' network, irreverent defense attorney Andy Carpenter always leaves them awed with his biting wit and winning fourth-quarter game plan. But the fun stops the day Andy's dad, Paterson, New Jersey's legendary ex-DA, drops dead in front of him at a game in Yankee Stadium.

The Gray Man

Court Gentry is known as The Gray Man - a legend in the covert realm, moving silently from job to job, accomplishing the impossible, and then fading away. And he always hits his target. But there are forces more lethal than Gentry in the world. And in their eyes, Gentry has just outlived his usefulness. Now, he is going to prove that for him, there's no gray area between killing for a living-and killing to stay alive.

Zero Day

From David Baldacci - the modern master of the thriller and number-one worldwide best-selling novelist - comes a new hero: a lone Army Special Agent taking on the toughest crimes facing the nation. John Puller is a combat veteran and the best military investigator in the U.S. Army's Criminal Investigative Division. His father was an Army fighting legend, and his brother is serving a life sentence for treason in a federal military prison. Puller has an indomitable spirit and an unstoppable drive to find the truth.

Killing Trail: A Timber Creek K-9 Mystery, Book 1

When a young girl is found dead in the mountains outside Timber Creek, lifelong resident Officer Mattie Cobb and her partner, K-9 police dog Robo, are assigned to the case that has rocked the small Colorado town. With the help of Cole Walker, a local veterinarian and single father, Mattie and Robo must track down the truth before it claims another victim. But the more Mattie investigates, the more she realizes how many secrets her town holds. And the key may be Cole's daughter, who knows more than she's saying.

A Clean Kill in Tokyo: John Rain, Book 1

Half American, half Japanese, expert in both worlds but at home in neither, John Rain is the best killer money can buy. You tell him who. You tell him where. He doesn't care about why… Until he gets involved with Midori Kawamura, a beautiful jazz pianist—and the daughter of his latest kill.

Publisher's Summary

Elvis Cole, wisecracking private eye, finds himself embroiled in a controversial LA murder case. A wealthy WASP entrepreneur appears to have murdered his wife. A hot-shot defense attorney takes the case and hires Elvis to find proof that the L.A. detective - rumored to be dirty - fooled around with the evidence. But as Elvis investigates, he becomes more suspicious of the media-loving lawyer than the cops. With sidekick Joe Pike and girlfriend Lucy Chenier in tow, Elvis carries the day.

I read Robert Crais's book 'Taken' which was fantastic. This book was a huge disappointment. Poor narrator. There are two main woman characters in this novel, it is 'grating' to hear him try and impersonate a southern belle. The ending is ridiculous, leaves you so unsatisfied.In short, don't waste your time.

I will willingly go to the next Robert Crais book because of my enjoyment of his previous novels. I will reluctantly suffer through another David Stuart reading so I can get the information from the book to carry onto the following one (which, thank goodness, has another narrator).

If you’ve listened to books by Robert Crais before, how does this one compare?

The previous Elvis Cole/Joe Pike novels have been a lot of fun. The stories have been interesting, and Elvis Cole has been a witty and fully enjoyable character. Unlike this book, the previous books do not revolve around the relationship between Elvis Cole and Lucy Chenier. In this book, the relationship took a lot of the attitude and the fun out of Cole's character. Without such a big involvement from Lucy, this could have been a solid and fully enjoyable story. The previous novels certainly are.<br/><br/>Also, David Stuart as a narration choice is unfortunate. Mel Foster was far superior to David Stuart as narrator, both in channeling the characters and in narration style. Where Mel Foster is laid back and smooth in his delivery, David Stuart is sloppy and mousey. David Stuart also seems to have a speech impediment that is hugely distracting.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of David Stuart?

I'd like to get Mel Foster back.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

When the author came back to the main story, it was pretty engaging. Unfortunately, the main story is peppered with Cole daydreaming about Lucy. But it is a generally good story.

Any additional comments?

I only have one more David Stuart fiasco to suffer through (Indigo Slam) before moving on to a decent narrator. I'm seriously considering skipping it, but I'd hate to lose any kernels of information that may be referenced in later books. So I suppose I'll probably get it.

I love Crais books and have listened to/reader almost all by now. The naarator and production of this book are horrible. I could not tell whether the narrator simply felt like all female characters (and some men) needed to speak with a lisp or if the production was so shoddy that it just sounded that way. Avoid this version.

Love Robert Crais and he lives up to his precedent in this book. The performer does fine with fluency and voices, but he has an obvious lisp, which makes Elvis sound a bit fey. It just doesn't fit the character. Still worth listening to for the story, which is quite good.

I'm not even half way through the book and the sound of this stuffy nose narrator is so annoying! His woman's voice sounds like a deeper more stuffy nosed whine with a lisp! The thing is that the story itself is really good, so I'm continuing on... hand this guy a tissue